Slow but steady progress was made today in the methodical effort to restore electric service in the wake of Saturday’s powerful Nor’easter storm that featured up to a foot of heavy, wet snow and downed thousands of trees and branches. The unseasonable October snowstorm interrupted electricity to an estimated 156,000 Central Hudson customers, half of all those served, making it one of the three worst storms in the utility’s century-long history.

As of Sunday afternoon, approximately 129,000 customers remained without electricity, concentrated largely in Dutchess (65,400), Orange (35,000), Putnam (5,000) and Ulster (20,300) counties, with additional outages scattered elsewhere in the utility’s eight-county service territory.  Central Hudson estimates that 13 transmission lines, 17 distribution circuits and four substations remain out of service as of Sunday afternoon. In addition, there are more than 1,300 individual neighborhood repairs that will need to be completed within local communities.

“Our crews will continue to work around the clock until every customer is back on line, and we will do our best to provide estimated restoration times as soon as they become available because we know what a hardship it is for families to be without electricity,” said Central Hudson President James P. Laurito. “We’re grateful for our customers’ continued patience and for the terrific support that we’re receiving from municipal officials and emergency responders in clearing local roadways.”

Laurito said a field force of more than 300 employees was reinforced today by hundreds of other Central Hudson employees working behind the scenes to provide operational support. An additional 250-300 field forces will be added to the restoration effort at first light on Monday, as crews from Tennessee, Long Island and the Albany areas join the massive recovery through the utility industry’s mutual aid assistance program.

Laurito urged customers to continue to be patient as the restoration effort progresses, and again reiterated the importance of staying away from downed lines, including those that might be entangled or hidden by fallen trees. “With Halloween tomorrow, we are especially concerned about the hundreds of locations where downed wires continue to present a danger. We are reminding customers in the strongest way possible: use extreme caution near downed trees that could potentially hide electric lines that may still be energized – and lethal,” he said.

“Since repairs are being made to major transmission and distribution lines first in an effort to restore power to the largest amount of customers in the shortest amount of time, customers need to know that some downed wires that may not have been energized as a result of the storm, may now once again have power flowing to them. Treat every downed wire as a live wire – stay away and tell others to stay away,” said Laurito.

Customers should call Central Hudson’s PowerLine at (845) 452-2700 or 1-800-527-2714 to report their power condition, and they are encouraged to use the automated reporting system. Customers with access to a computer may also report their power condition via the utility’s website, www.CentralHudson.com, by using the StormCentral function.

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